This invention relates to the process for continuously separating polluting matter from a carrier fluid. More partcularly, this invention relates to a process for removing pollutants from a carrier fluid by introducing charged small particles for inducing the formation of charged small particles in the carrier fluid to attract and concentrate the pollutants which then are seperated from the carrier fluid.
The process of this invention provides a considerable lowering of the costs for the treatment of a polluted carrier fluid both with regard to the investment required and the costs of operating the process. Through this invention, continuous seperation of pollutants from a carrier medium is possible at a lower level of technical and chemical complexity than is available in the prior art. The process of this invention also is suited for solving difficult problems in cleaning waste water for both smaller and larger plants.
Prior to the present invention, quite complex processes have been used to clean carrier fluids, for example dirt-carrying mixtures of oil and water, such as oil emulsions having been used for boring and grinding to the extent that the filtrate may be released into the public waste water system. In the usual processes in use today, hydroxide or hydroxide-producing substances are added to the polluted waste water. The waste water must be strongly alkaline and then strongly acidic. Thereafter, it is usually heated up to close to the boiling point if one does not prefer to let the cleaning and precipitating process take place slowly in elaborate waste water treatment plants. It has also been suggested to use flotation by pumping in air or by bringing the part of the waste water consisting of oil up to the surface of vessels with the help of filtering agents. Flotation, achieved by adding oily or oil-containing substances are used in mining technologies or one uses flotation through the development of gases produced at electrodes by electrolysis of the waste water. Small particles are also used to bind the oil and the dirt, for example with sublimated silicon acid (aerosil). By these procedures, voluminous amounts of sludge are produced, the operating costs are high and they entail many technical difficulties. Also, several of these processes are operated discontinuously whereby the individual batches have to be treated separately.